HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-10-24, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019.
Sawchuk pens guide for accessible home-building
After going through the process
with her family to build an
accessible, barrier-free home,
Blyth’s Julie Sawchuk has written a
book in the hope that it will be easier
for those who come after her.
Build Your Space: How to Create
an Accessible Home for You, Your
Family and Your Future should be
available in print later this month
and Sawchuk is hosting a special
open house at her family’s home on
Blyth Road east of Blyth to launch
it. The open house, set for Saturday,
Nov. 16, will not only serve as a
launch event for the book, but also a
chance for locals to see the
Sawchuks’ new home, built by
Blyth’s Casey Boven
with a completely barrier-free
design.
Sawchuk chose to self-publish the
book, which will be available on
amazon.ca later this month, working
with the same team she did to
contribute a chapter to Shine:
Inspirational Stories of Choosing
Success over Adversity. Ahead of
writing Build Your Space, however,
Sawchuk employed the services of a
writing coach for the first time.
With the help of that coach,
Sawchuk was able to formulate an
outline of what she hoped to cover in
her book and once that was in place,
she said the ideas flowed very easily.
She wrote the book in chunks,
tackling a chapter at a time, which
she says helped to keep her on track.
After Sawchuk was struck while
cycling a number of years ago,
paralyzing her from the chest down,
the process to get her home again
began shortly after her rehabilitation
stay in London. Living in a 110-
year-old, two-storey farmhouse,
however, there was plenty of work to
do and the family soon realized a
new house would have to be built.
It was then that she was surprised
at the lack of resources out there for
those looking to build a barrier-free
home. The resources she did find
were all American and many of them
handled the basics like ramps and
grab bars. To truly build an
accessible, barrier-free home from
the ground up, however, demands a
number of additional decisions to
create a house no different than most
suburban homes that is just
accessible for all.
For example, working with Cindy
Kerr of iDesign Kitchen Studio, they
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The Citizen
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Julie Sawchuk of the Blyth area, above, found that accessible home construction resources
were lacking in Canada when her family was looking to build a new house, so she decided to
write a book on the subject herself. It should be available from Amazon this month and she has
a special open house and book launch event scheduled for November. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
A new dawn
Working with local contractor Casey Boven, the Sawchuk
family are now proud owners of an accessible house that
accommodates all family members. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Continued on page 21